Learnings from my first 10 blog posts
When I first started blogging, I told myself I was at least going to write ten blog posts before deciding what to do next. About a month ago, I finally published my 10th blog post.
It has been about ten months since I wrote my first post, so I want to take some time to check-in on my blogging journey. I am going to take a four-step approach to reflect on my blogging experience:
- Assess my blogging progress
- Point out challenges I ran into while blogging
- Share benefits I got from blogging
- Discuss what I am going to do moving forward
By sharing my blogging experience, I hope to help people who are interested in starting a blog determine whether blogging is worth doing.
My blogging progress
In my first blog post, I committed to my readers to publish a blog post every two weeks.
I would have written 20 blog posts if I had held my commitments. However, I only finished ten blog posts so far. In other words, I only accomplished half of my goal.
Challenges while blogging
Although there are no actual excuses for why I am so behind in my blogging progress, I want to share several challenges while blogging:
- Setting aside time to write
The most challenging thing in blogging is setting aside time to write. I had a very consistent writing schedule in my first two months of blogging, but I got sloppy and lazy as time passed.
After blogging for a few months, I stopped treating blogging as a priority because I didn't get any immediate value from blogging. I would start to prioritize other things that I would get instant results or gratification, such as spending more time working or hanging out with friends.
Without knowing whether blogging would bring me anything valuable, I struggled to stay motivated to blog consistently. I always told myself to write before bed, but I always felt too tired to write.
- Figuring out what to write
I was a bit lost after finishing my first two posts because I didn't know what to write next.
Since I didn't know what topic to focus on, I would draft blog posts based on my chronological life stories. However, all my drafts felt extremely boring, and the message of my posts felt like a cliche. I felt like I was writing a textbook explaining the history of my life.
After writing a few uninteresting drafts, I ran into writer's block. I was a bit burnout from forcing myself to find something interesting to write.
A conversation with my content creator friend got me out of my writing drought. I asked my friend how she kept coming up with ideas to write/vlog. She told me that she was just going with the flow and not restricting the topics she produced content on.
Going with the flow was the key that unlocked my creativity. I started paying attention to what was on my mind and letting my emotions direct my writing. Since I started writing what's top of mind, I have been able to write more naturally and effortlessly.
A lot of online advice told me I needed to find my niche and could only write about a topic. However, I would get extremely bored if I could only write about one topic. I find writing a lot more exciting when I can document my reflections as I encounter different experiences in life.
- Taking too much time to write
Having English as my second language, I always struggled with writing growing up.
Writing doesn't come naturally to me, so I often need to spend more time writing than the average native English speaker. Coming up with different sentence structures and diversifying my vocabularies are extremely difficult.
The hardest thing about writing is organizing all my thoughts and ideas logically and concisely. Once I finish a blog draft, I often need to spend a lot of time revising my writing to ensure what I wrote makes sense.
On average, I would need to spend at least ten hours writing each blog post.
Benefits of blogging
I faced a lot of challenges while blogging, but I also benefited tremendously in my life by sharing my blog with the world:
- Broadening my interactions with people
One unexpected benefit of blogging is that it allows me to interact with people I usually would not interact with.
In addition to publishing my blog posts through my newsletter, I would also share my new blog through my Instagram story. Depending on the topics of my posts, different people would share their thoughts and reactions by replying to my story.
I initially thought only my close friends would read my blog, but I found out many friends I haven't spoken to for a long time are also reading my blog. By responding to comments about my blog, I reconnected with a few friends I have lost touch with over the years.
- Enhancing the quality of my conversation with people
Not only does blogging allow me to rekindle with friends, but it also allows me to have a much deeper conversation with people.
Since I shared many of my insecurities in my blog posts, I found that people are much more willing to be open with me while discussing my blogs.
For example, I recently caught up with a female friend who I have only met twice, but we were able to discuss our struggles in dating openly while sharing our thoughts on one of my previous relationship posts.
I told my friend that I feared being inexperienced in dating would hinder me from getting into a relationship. However, she told me not having much dating experience usually is not a deal breaker for girls because I can always gain more experience while dating the girl.
She also told me girls care more about the guy's confidence than the guy's dating experience, so she encouraged me not to let being inexperienced become my mental blocker. After learning from a girl's perspective on one of my biggest insecurities, I felt much more comfortable about myself.
Being vulnerable in my blogs allowed me to cut through the surface-level conversation and get into a much deeper dialogue with people, which greatly enhanced the quality of my interaction with other people.
- Improving my thinking
Another value that I got from blogging is I was able to improve my thinking.
I was forced to slow down and think while I blog. Before writing my blogs, I have never taken the time to reflect on my learnings from my day-to-day experiences.
Writing my blog required me to spend a lot of time thinking to distill the takeaways from the things I encountered in life. I learned how better to connect the dots in my life through blogging.
Writing also allowed me to think more logically. To articulate the main message in my blogs, I had to organize my thoughts in a way that was easy to digest.
By brainstorming, writing, and revising my blog, I became a more structured and critical thinker.
- Having a focal point in life outside of work
Writing a blog gave me something productive to work towards outside of work.
Since graduating college, I didn't have clear goals to work towards. Therefore, I often watch YouTube videos or play video games during my free time. Whenever I indulged in excessive entertainment, I would feel guilty and think I am wasting my life.
After I started blogging, I quit playing video games because I felt much more accomplished and productive while blogging. Every time I write, I would feel like I am making some progress in life.
Having blogging as a thing I can constantly work towards gave me a new anchor in life. I felt incredibly refreshed and gained a lot of satisfaction from continuously making progress in my blog.
My next steps for blogging
- Write another ten blog posts
Although writing the first ten blog posts was hard, I enjoyed the enrichment blogging has brought to my life.
Therefore, I will write another ten blog posts and reassess my progress.
- Write every morning
To solve my most significant challenge of finding time to write, I will make writing the first thing I do after I wake up.
I want to start my day by writing my blog for ten minutes and see how much progress I can make.
- Writing my blog to myself
I often run into writer's block because I don't know what audience I should write my blog to.
Therefore, I want to start focusing on writing my blog to myself. I want to treat myself as the primary audience. Instead of forcing myself to write a particular topic, I will document my reflections as I experience life.
By documenting my thought process and life journey, I am excited to see how much I will grow in the next five years when looking back at my blogs.
Conclusion
Starting a blog is easy, but maintaining a consistent posting schedule is extremely difficult. Finding time to blog, coming up with topics, and being a slow writer are my top challenges while blogging.
Although blogging requires a lot of effort, I got tremendous value from writing my blogs. I improved the quantity and quality of my connections, sharpened my ability to think, and found a meaningful side project to spend time on.
I would love to continue writing at least ten more blogs and look forward to seeing where my blogging journey will lead me in life.
Feel free to share your reflections, thoughts, or feedback with me @themagichen on Instagram or reach me at themagichen@gmail.com